Gymnastic bars, such as a horizontal bar, present at least two serious areas of consideration in construction and use that create some degree of deficiency. The first is that the construction of the bar must be absolutely perfect to assure that breakage will not occur even over long periods of usage so that the gymnast will not be injured while performing. While injury because of breakage happens infrequently, the possibility thereof does increase as the use and age of the bar increases.
Existing bars are smooth and gripping the bars for performance purposes is a universal problem. Performers will typically wear gloves treated with rosin or the like to facilitate and enhance the gripping action.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of this invention to provide a gymnastic bar and method of making the same that will greatly enhance the strength thereof and facilitate its being grasped by gymnasts.
This and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
The gymnastic bar of this invention has a textured non-smooth surface throughout its length to enhance its strength and to facilitate the gripping thereof by gymnasts. The texture of the bar is created by subjecting the bar to a shot peening process wherein the bar is subject to being impacted by a plurality of high velocity, hard particulate material to create indentations in the surface thereof throughout the substantial area of the surface. The bar, of stainless steel material, is heat treated before being subjected to the peening process. The bar is subjected to the process until it achieves a tensile strength of approximately 190,000 p.s.i.